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Atlas Obscura - Latest • Feb. 4, 2026, 7:18 p.m.
Foding Palace in Nanjing, China
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Beneath the domed summit of Niushoushan Cultural Park lies one of China’s most unexpected sacred spaces: an enormous multi-level Buddhist palace hidden completely underground. Built to echo the mountain’s Tang-dynasty religious heritage, the complex was designed to protect important relics—believed to include a fragment of the Buddha’s skull—once kept on this very peak.
Descend through spiraling stone corridors into a surreal, cathedral-like space of illuminated lotus domes, golden halls, and one of the largest underground reclining Buddhas in Asia. Concealed below ground to evoke a hidden mandala-world, the palace blends relic veneration with futuristic architecture, creating an unexpected sacred labyrinth beneath an otherwise tranquil cultural park.
Descend through spiraling stone corridors into a surreal, cathedral-like space of illuminated lotus domes, golden halls, and one of the largest underground reclining Buddhas in Asia. Concealed below ground to evoke a hidden mandala-world, the palace blends relic veneration with futuristic architecture, creating an unexpected sacred labyrinth beneath an otherwise tranquil cultural park.
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